Halfway through a timing belt change on my '05 Golf using MOgolf's excellent demo instructions on an '04 Jetta, I'm about to change out the water pump. When I go to where I'd NORMALLY look to find a coolant drain at the bottom corner of the radiator there's an elbow... with no drain. MOGolf's picture show a nice drain T'd off from that elbow but maybe that was an upcharge for a better model OK, I could pull the hose and let it glug all over, but that seems like a real sloppy solution. Anybody know the secret location? And while I'm asking do you really fill the whole system through the coolant bottle? How do you burp the air out without a radiator cap?

Well... DANG! I think I'll stop at the dealer to see if I can get one of those fancy elbows so I don't create a super fund site at the next change. I guess I'll be putting my morter mixing tub to an alternate use. How about the fill? Just through the coolant bottle?

I can't comment on an '05, but when Herm did the timing belt on my '02, he had me aim the drain pan, and just took the water pump out. WHen it came time to refill, he just refilled at the bottle. I kept an eye on the level for a few days and added a little bit more over a few days. I didn't have any issues with air in the heater core, etc.

Yeah, I was hoping to avoid gumming up the whole belt area with coolant. Some things I just want to keep clean. How cheap can VW be to save
costs by not providing a drain? I mean you follow the hydraulics from the pump to the EGR to the oil cooler to the heater core to the where ever. All that complexity and they leave out a simple drain mechanism? I'm betting they make one and VW sells it for another model cause the '04 jetta sure has one and it looks an awful lot like my front end.

You use a mityvac or oil extractor on the overflow hose to pull the air out of the system. Works like a charm.

Hmmm... clever. I never thought of that. Thanks. I always have fear of pockets of air getting stuck where they don't belong. Happened on an Isuzu in my past and burned up my valves pretty good. On the positive side it ran ok on two cylinders.